Even legends need a mentor for Jack Pratt and Bob Suci. The man who helped mold their Hall of Fame careers was Frank Thomas. Pratt, 75, and still going strong as the football and basketball coach at Powers Catholic, began his coaching as an assistant under Thomas at Grand Blanc in 1955.
Suci, who played four seasons in the NFL, set the Genesee County rushing record while playing for Thomas frog 1955-57.
Decades have passed since Pratt an Suci worked directly with Thomas, but their respect for the man has not dimmed. Tonight Thomas, who died four years ago, will join his former assistant and former star in the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame.
“He was more than a coach,” Suci said. “Basically, you take Joe Pitock, Jack Pratt, Frank Thomas and they were not only good coaches, but they were your friends and cared about you. It was more than football, because they were those types of individuals. We were just blessed to have those coaches because you don’t usually get those type of guys.”
Thomas was Grand Blanc’s football coach from 1954 64, compiling a 63-22-8 record and winning four league championships during that time. His 1956 team was 9-0 and finished No. 4 in both state Class B polls during the pre playoff era from 1956-60. The Bobcats were 36-2-5. Before coming to Grand Blanc, Thomas was unbeaten in two years at North Branch going 16-0-2.
Pratt got his coaching start alongside Thomas straight out of college and got far more out of the experience than X’s and 0’s, wins and losses.
“Frank was a first-class person,” Pratt said. “He, like Tom Smith and Howard Auer, were legends of their times in the Flint area. They were all outstanding personalities and tremendously successful coaches. He was a fantastic man, one that was consciously concerned with the players. He had a high standard of morality. He was very close to what is sometimes called sainthood.”
That’s why so many former players were there for Thomas when his health was failing and when the Grand Blanc football field was named in his honor in 1997.
“He taught more than just football,” said Jack Richardson, who played for Thomas in 1954 and 1955. “He taught character and taught discipline. It was always ‘Mister’ or ‘Coach’. I really appreciated that as I got older. He treated everybody equally. I just never had a bad moment with him. It was all good.”
Current Grand Blanc coach Joe Delaney was a student at the school while Thomas was athletic director. He routinely sought advice from Thomas after getting into the coaching profession. Thomas often tried to persuade Delaney to run the old single wing formation a few times in a game, just to give opponents something else to prepare for. Delaney said he did it once “to please him.”
Thomas set the standard for all coaches at Grand Blanc, a standard Delaney said he strives to live up to. “You always looked up to Frank Thomas,” Delaney said. “He had influence on a number of people. He always said to me, ‘Oh you know, the thing to do is to get kids to play.” He had some interesting ways to get kids in ball games, which I try to use, also.
“His thing wasn’t so much the winning, but having kids participate. That’s really what high school sports are all about. Sometimes we lose that perspective, but he had that perspective.” Thomas continued to have a major impact on Flint-area athletics after stepping down as football coach. He had the dual roles of athletic director and football coach from 1958-63.
His administrative role expanded in 1964, his final year as football coach, when he was named director of athletics and coordinator of physical education and recreation for the school system. In that capacity, Thomas played a leading role in the formation of Grand Blanc Parks and Recreation in 1970.
He was also a leader in the creation of the Genesee County High School Hockey League in 1972-73, helping get the state hockey finals in Flint. The hockey finals in at least one class were hosted at IMA Sports Arena from 1977 to 2002. Thomas helped ensure the high school and middle school were built with swimming pools. Swimming is now one of the most successful sports at Grand Blanc.
Thomas was an outstanding athlete in his own right, playing football for Guy Houston at Northern in 1944 and 1945 and making the All-Saginaw Valley Conference team. He enlisted in the Marines after high school, then went to Michigan State and played two years of football for the Spartans. He quit during his junior year when he started a family and went to work.
“I never thought about doing anything else but coach athletics,” Thomas said upon his retirement in 1989.
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